Letters: A new authority, if not CAG

This refers to the report “ONGC rapped for exploration delay” (August 28). Performance audit was introduced as part of commercial audit that was carried out by the Indian Audit and Accounts Department in the late sixties. The purpose was to go beyond the mere checking of accounts and ensure that each item of expenditure was backed by a “voucher” and find out whether the expenditure from public funds actually served the purpose envisaged when the outlay of expenditure was planned.

In the years that followed, the scope of audit has expanded along with the growth in public expenditure, multiplicity of sectors and ever-growing size of projects and extending geographies. Since the funding comes ultimately from taxpayers, the difference between public and private sectors is also narrowing. So, when the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) comments on the nation’s resources being “sold out” to the private sector, traditional accountants begin to doubt his jurisdiction.

India’s resources, including financial resources, deserve more dignified treatment. If the government or political leadership feels that the CAG, or for that matter any of the regulatory authorities, should not comment on the performance part of policy decisions by ministries, it is time the country thought about having a separate authority to do the job. The government should set up a Performance Audit Authority that should have powers and the competence to act as a watchdog to ensure that public expenditure is insulated from pilferages and leaks of the kind we are seeing every day.

M G Warrier Mumbai

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